“Thank you,” Grangeland said, “but we’ve a got another appointment after this.”

“No problem. This way, please.”

They followed Dr. Salk down a short hall. Salk spoke as they walked. “We’ve got the body in our refrigeration room. I didn’t want to bring it out until you arrived. I should warn you, it’s one of the worse cases of mutilation I’ve ever seen. Whoever did it knew what he, or she, was doing. The victim’s submergence in water washed the exterior applications, but we found traces of QuikClot in the victim’s bloodstream. The only reasonable conclusion is that his attacker didn’t want him to bleed to death. The margins also indicated cauterization. There still would’ve been significant bleeding, just not as much.”

Harv looked back and mouthed the words, You okay?

He gave a tight nod. Montez hadn’t used a hot knife on him, but he had used a clotting agent that had stung like all hell.

They entered the examination room and he noticed the drop in temperature right away. It looked and smelled both sterile and chemical. Lots of shiny surfaces and stainless steel. Drainage sinks. Mobile instrument tables. Cabinets. Computer stations. Four autopsy tables lined one wall. A large stainless door on the far side of the room probably led to the walk-in refrigerator.

“I’ll need one of you to help me with the body.”

Harv volunteered.

He and Grangeland waited in the exam room.

Grangeland spoke softly. “I can’t begin to imagine what you’re feeling.”

Nathan steadied himself for what was about to roll out of that icy cell and what it represented. Maybe this hadn’t been such a good idea after all. Escape was a few steps away. No. Not now. Especially not now. How would that look? Running away at the moment of truth?

The door reopened with a clank.

Chapter 16

Chapter 16

Nathan squinted as Salk rolled the body into the room. An opaque plastic sheet covered Kramer’s form.

It’s just a body.

Harv’s expression told all. One part revulsion, one part anger.

The gurney stopped.

Dr. Salk removed the plastic.

What lay before him looked sickeningly familiar.

An inch apart, diagonal knife cuts savaged the ash-gray skin in a crisscrossing pattern from collarbone to belt line. The cuts on the outer portions of the torso extended down to the steel surface of the table. The flesh within the wounds looked raw and dark. Montez had turned this man into a human wicker basket.

When Nathan spoke, he felt like two people imprisoned in a single body. “We’ve been thinking about something. In the middle of a desert, why would the killer bother to dump the body in the lake?”

Salk answered matter-of-factly. “Because it wasn’t a body when it went into the water.”

“What did you say?”

“I said this man was alive.”

“Alive?”